East London Review Results

At the June 26, 2017 Board Meeting, the Board of Trustees for the London District Catholic School Board (LDCSB) approved recommendations to close two London schools, Holy Cross and St. Robert.

The circumstances and demographics of six neighboring schools in East London necessitated the creation of an Accommodation Review Committee (ARC or school closure review) earlier in the school year. The best way to make a positive impact on the community as a whole was to review the six schools together as a group, rather than individually, in order to address the following:

There are 700 empty student spaces in the schools (1/3 of the board total of 2,000), resulting in resources being spread too thin across the schools

The school buildings have significant capital needs ($20 million over the next five years). The LDCSB receives approximately $7 million each year for capital needs to be spread across 55 schools.

"Doing nothing was not an option," said John Jevnikar, chair of the Board. "We needed to realign the number of schools with current realities, which meant moving from six to four schools. We also wanted to make decisions that would affect the least number of students."

"We needed to respond to changing demographics in the area," said Jacquie Davison, Superintendent of Business. "This geographic area contains the greatest density of school buildings in the entire school board, yet we have had a 40% decline in enrollment in ten years. Closing these two schools will eliminate 574 of the 700 empty spaces in the area."